This invention is concerned with moving means for use in a glassware manufacturing machine for moving an operative member such as a funnel, a baffle or a blowhead.
In a glassware manufacturing machine of the so-called "individual section" type, it is necessary to move operative members between out-of-the-way positions thereof out of alignment with an opening of a cavity of a mould of the machine and operative positions thereof in which the operative member is in alignment with the opening of the cavity and in close proximity thereto. For example, each section of the machine comprises a blank mould in which parisons are formed from gobs of molten glass by either a pressing or a blowing operation and it is necessary to move a funnel into alignment with the mould opening so that the funnel can guide a gob into the mould cavity. The funnel is then moved to an out-of-the-way position thereof to allow a baffle to close the mould cavity opening. The baffle is moved in a similar manner to the funnel in relation to the blank mould and a blowhead through which air is blown into the mould is moved in a similar manner but in relation to a finish mould of the section in which parisons transferred to the finish mould from the blank mould are blown into articles of glassware.
Conventional moving means for moving the funnel, baffle and blowhead of a machine of the individual section type operates in a similar manner in each case. The moving means comprises a vertically-disposed piston and cylinder assembly having a piston with two integral piston rods. One piston rod extends vertically-upwards providing a vertically-extending shaft on which a support for the operative member is mounted for movement with the shaft. The other piston rod extends vertically downwards and carries a cam follower which engages a cam track shaped so that, during part of the movement of the piston along the cylinder, it is caused to turn so that the first-mentioned piston rod turns about a vertical longitudinal axis thereof. The support for the operative member comprises an arm which extends horizontally and on which the operative member is mounted and clamping means by which the support is clamped to the vertically-extending shaft so that the support moves with the shaft. The arrangement is, thus, such that movement of the piston causes the upwardly-extending piston rod to move vertically and to turn about its longitudinal axis so that the operative member makes a movement which has a rotary component about a vertical axis and a linear component in a vertical direction, the linear component moves the operative member towards or away from the opening of the mould cavity while the rotary component moves it into or out of alignment with the opening.
The vertically-extending shaft of the moving means for an operative member of a conventional machine is cylindrical and the clamping means acts to force two semi-circular gripping surfaces arranged on opposite sides of the shaft into gripping engagement with the shaft. This arrangement enables the support to be clamped to the shaft in any orientation but this is undesirable as the arm must extend away from the shaft in precisely the correct orientation if the operative member is to align correctly with the mould cavity opening. Thus, when an operative member has to be changed either because of wear or because the machine is being changed to manufacture a different article, considerable time is spent in correctly orientating the support relative to the shaft before clamping it thereto. This time causes lost production of considerable proportions especially when it is recalled that, in each section, this problem occurs with the baffle, the blowhead and the funnel. A typical machine has 6 sections so that the problem occurs 18 times when a job change is made and machines with 8 or 10 sections are not uncommon.
It is an object of the present invention to provide moving means of the type described in which the support can be more rapidly orientated relative to the shaft than in the conventional moving means described above.